Chongqing – Leo's View
Chongqing is one of the most fascinating cities in China. It’s often called the largest city in the world, because it covers a huge area that includes several cities, districts, and rural regions. It got that status in 1997, when it was administratively separated and expanded to include its vast surroundings. It has more than 30 million residents, but the actual urban core is much smaller.
The city is extremely hilly and sits at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers. That’s why it’s known as the “8D city”—streets, bridges, metro lines, and buildings are stacked on top of each other at different levels, so at times it feels like a maze. It’s also nicknamed the “fog city,” because it’s wrapped in thick fog for much of the year—though for us, the sun was out most of the time. I even heard it never snows there.
Coming from Shenzhen, the difference was easy to feel. The city felt different not just in its architecture, but in its atmosphere and in how people acted and looked. Compared to modern, polished Shenzhen, life here felt more communal—people sat out on the streets, ate together, chatted, and the city was generally more alive, while still being technologically very advanced.
We stayed right in the center near Chaotianmen Square, next to two huge hotel towers where professional photographers stood every day, taking pictures of people in front of them. Right after we arrived, the view from our place blew us away—straight onto the rivers, the massive Qiansimen Bridge, and the famous tourist area of Hongyadong. At night everything was beautifully lit up, with endless crowds of tourists from all over China and Asia streaming by. It felt like a major European city at the peak of the season.
Hongyadong is a famous complex of buildings built in a traditional style on a slope above the river. It’s a modern attraction full of restaurants, shops, and viewpoints connected across multiple levels.
Every day we spent a lot of time downtown and underground, where the metro was, along with big food courts similar to the ones in shopping malls back home. The food was really cheap and sometimes surprisingly good—duck with rice for about €3, a Pepsi for 30 cents. On the other hand, actually choosing food was a real problem. Not just because of the language barrier—in my experience, 99% of people in China don’t speak English—but also because many combinations were unusual for us and often contained spices that completely changed the dish.
Some dishes were downright extreme—like a meat and vegetable dish that was incredibly spicy and, on top of that, full of hard, pea-sized peppercorns scattered through the whole meal that you couldn’t even chew. That kind of thing happened more than once, so picking food became stressful, especially when I was hungry and worn out from navigating the city.
The ordering systems were another problem. In a lot of restaurants you ordered through a QR code, which was complicated, since everything was in Chinese. One time I spent an hour failing to get food, because something went wrong at every single restaurant, until I finally lost it and started ranting in the street. A young local guy who had lived in Europe and spoke English noticed, asked if I needed help, found me a restaurant, and told them what I wanted. There was still some weird spice in it anyway 😆
Chongqing is built on hills, so getting around is genuinely exhausting. Even distances that look short turn out to be much longer in reality. That’s why I recommend the metro and taxis. The metro was very clean and modern, just like in Shenzhen, and taxis were a great deal considering how modern and touristy the city is—a night ride cost me as little as €3.
Navigation was another big challenge. Google Maps basically doesn’t work there, so you have to use Chinese apps—which are, of course, in Chinese. I got lost more than once because of it. Even when I went just a kilometer from our place, I often needed the map just to find my way back. Like I said—a maze.
As for clothing prices, I was surprised that China wasn’t as cheap as I expected. In the modern shopping malls, the prices of clothes, electronics, and brand-name stores were noticeably higher than in Vietnam. They were still somewhat lower than back home, but there was no comparison with Vietnam. Before the trip I assumed China would be the cheapest place of all—turns out it was the opposite. 😂
Another thing that caught me off guard was the sheer amount of merchandise in the stores. I’ve never seen so many products in one place as in China. One shopping mall had, for example, two entire floors of nothing but toys. When I was there, I was completely alone—I didn’t see a single person shopping, and I couldn’t figure out who buys all of it. What fascinated me most was that the employees just kept unboxing new stock and refilling shelves that were already full. They had one ordinary memory-matching game—in stacks of a thousand. To this day I don’t understand why they stock such massive quantities of the same product, or who actually buys it all 😆
One of the biggest experiences was seeing the Chongqing 1949 show at its Grand Theatre. I still can’t wrap my head around how someone came up with it. The entire theater was built just for this one production. It’s a massive theatrical show telling a story from the Chinese Civil War and the events around 1949. The stage itself keeps moving throughout the performance—rotating and shifting on platforms. Some sections rise out of the ground, others disappear below the stage, and moving sets, bridges, even entire buildings appear. Actors come in from every direction, and you feel like you’re sitting right in the middle of the action. The whole show is backed by light effects, music, projections, and flawless synchronization. For me, as a European, it was indescribable—easily one of the top experiences of all of China.
In the evenings I often went to the Guanyinqiao district, about 15 minutes by car from our place. It’s a lively area full of bars, clubs, and street food. At night it was extremely alive—loud music, all kinds of clubs, foreign tourists, and insane crowds. This is where I saw how much the Chinese love to drink and have a good time. The atmosphere was really dynamic and social.
Overall, Chongqing feels like an extremely modern yet chaotic, layered city. It’s enormous—full of tourists, technology, and contrasts. On one hand, it’s fascinating for anyone who loves technology and big cities; on the other, it’s pretty demanding to navigate and function in day to day—especially if you don’t speak Chinese.